{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Standard Digital News - Kenya : My little stories on Otieno Kajwang' of 'em days
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Standard Digital News - Kenya : My little stories on Otieno Kajwang' of 'em days
Before Lady Luck smiled on the late Senator Gerald Otieno Kajwang', widening the income gap between him and I, we lived in a cheap corner of Nairobi called Komarock. We shared the same matatu stage, often queuing in the rain.
Occasionally, he would be quite hilarious, especially when had had more than one for the road.
As a budding journalist, I used to marvel at how he managed to steal newspaper headlines and curve out a perception among Kanu's billionaire barons, yet from the little I knew about him, he was a literally broke, washed-up guy.
Also living in this neighbourhood in the mid-90s was that radical critic of Kanu who was as hard as nails, Tirop Kitur, who at one time was Mwandawiro Mghanga's lieutenant at the university.
There was also the likeable and fiery Islamic youth Abdirahaman Wandati.
So you can imagine the fun it was at times to get the three in one matatu conversing about what was wrong in Kenya and what needed to be done.
Of course there are those who mistook their vocal debates for dissidence and rebellion.
At this time, Mr Kajwang's law firm was in tatters, especially after he was barred from practising after he did one or two things with clients' cash, so it was said.
So bad were the times for him that at one point he chose to run for a seat in the Eldoret branch of Railway Workers Union, which was literally a shop steward's role!
But when life changed for him (a generous dividend for his loyalty to Raila Odinga) he was hoisted to higher levels of society.
Those who knew him then and today would tell you his was a real-life case of extreme makeover in as far as money and class are concerned.
I have four little stories to tell about the soloist of the "Bado Mapambano" fame, if only to add to the humour and simplicity that followed him to death.
What happened to us one night when the matatu we were in alongside my News Editor then, Caleb Atemi, is the first one.
Our driver happened to overtake a saloon car not knowing it belonged to the dreaded Flying Squad Police on patrol. In the usual matatu style, our driver got back to the cop's lane to pick more passengers.
Out of the darkness, sirens rang, as the cops stopped by our matatu and pulled out the driver, who they kicked and punched. Mr Kajwang' and former Embakasi MP David Mwenje (deceased) would later do the same thing to each other in Parliament.
After they drove off, the shaken driver took his seat while the tout, who had taken off, came back.
After five or so minutes of silence, one drunk complained that even the vocal Mr Kajwang, who was in the front seat, had curled his tail.
One even asked him why he didn't speak up yet he prided himself as a defender of human rights.
Then another asked whether anyone had picked up the registration of the car and no one did. "Maajabu haya, hata Kajwang'?" someone exclaimed as we burst into laughter.
What I heard next of Mr Kajwang' was that he had made the mistake of alighting at the end of the matatu route, next to Kayole. There was a new pub called Sparks and it had the music that, he joked, "loved his ears".
On the way back on foot to the Komarock side, he was mugged on the unlit path. In case you ever asked yourself where he got the mark on his face that resembles Mr Odinga's, now you know.
It is probably the only thing that would remind him of Komarock when he washes the face or looks at himself in the mirror.
But as it was with the politics of the day, the attack in an area none of us residents would dare be after 9pm, there was a news conference by his comrades that this was another Kanu attack on an Opposition figure.
It didn't help that another of Mr Kajwang's lawyer friends had picked up a quarrel with a Jua Kali mechanic over something to do with the repair of his BMW.
In short, the mechanic got another use of the wheel spanner, breaking the proud man's wrist.
So again it was said "ni hawa watu wa Kanu!"
Our last story for the day is about why Mr Kajwang' sunk his teeth on Mr Mwenje's back, leading to the news conference where Mr Mwenje bared his shirt and said who knows, maybe the then Mbita MP had infected him with HIV!
As was the tradition then among MPs, Mr Kajwang' had the paper price of the car he was buying through Parliament and the banks. What would happen is that after agreeing on the real price with the vendor, you "topped up" the figure.
This would be given to you in cash so as to avoid the paper trail, once the cheque was through.
We don't know how much, but journalist Njeri Rugene and I were privy to Mr Kajwang's boasting to Mr Mwenje that he had got his share and even deposited Sh150,000 at Trans National Bank.
After tea, Mr Kajwang dropped the deposit slip he had shown Mr Mwenje and his colleagues in the waste basket.
Cunning as Mr Mwenje was since the days he used to boast he shared initials with the then President and had brought down former Vice President Josephat Karanja, he found another use for the slip Mr Kajwang had discarded.
He picked it, straightened it and then walked away.
Since the mainstream Opposition MPs were unhappy that Mr Odinga and his MPs were getting cozy with Kanu, the next was a press conference in which Mr Mwenje tabled Mr Kajwang's deposit slip as 'proof' Kanu was bribing Tinga's MPs.
Mr Kajwang applied the tactics he learnt in Komarock and "taught Mr Mwenje a lesson".
Never one to concede defeat, Mr Mwenje said he was ambushed and vowed to retaliate with his Kamjesh militia. Soon, both men were walking around Parliament with bouncers.
It is because of this that Standing Orders were changed to block non-MPs from going beyond the car park and public gallery.
Yes, I will miss Mr Kajwang not just because of the humour and jest he injected into the politics of defiance, so much that he looked the odd one out when he joined the Cabinet in 2008, but also because he is part of my story as a journalist.
Yes, I saw him transcend political, social and economic barriers for the last 20 years!
Rest in Peace, brother.
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